Daniels Antiques

An overview of antique dining tables

During the middle ages, when meals were served at English castles and manor houses guests would be seated in the great hall. This area was often so large it could accommodate nearly the entire population of the house. The design of dining tables of this time was merely long wooden planks resting on trestles. This was a practical design, for when more room was needed in the hall, the tables could be easily dismantled and moved.

At these gatherings the custom was for the master of the house and his family to be served along at a smaller, separate table on a raised dais. Because of the large number of people crowded into one location, dining the great halls were not for formal dining. English nobility soon introduced designs for separate rooms off the great hall, known as parlors or drawing rooms. These rooms were intended for quiet discussion, drinks and relaxation. The quieter atmosphere of the parlors led to the man of the house opting to have his dinner served here rather than in the great hall. Eventually this custom would turn the parlor into the area for dining, thus the inspiration for our modern day dining rooms. With one room now intended solely for the purpose of dining, there was no longer a need for easily transported tables. Thus, “permanent” tables grew to become a new area of design and inspiration in furniture crafting. The earliest work was often done in oak, but soon the tables became more elegant, introducing inlaid craftsmanship and even finer woods such as mahogany, rosewood, and walnut.

In the 17th century gate-leg dining tables were quite popular. These designs used flaps which could be folded down when the table was not in use. This would inspire early 19th century designs, which used removable leaves so that the length of the table could be shortened or lengthened to accommodate different gatherings. Antique dining tables with leaves come in several forms the earliest being the pedestal table having a series of pedestals in a line with a top for each one these could then be connected with leaves t o expand the size of the table. Then comes an antique drawer leaf table which opens by means of a telescopic action which works by a person standing at each end of the antique table and pulling it apart, the leaves are then added to the desired size and the table can then be pushed closed , This type of table needs to be locked so that a sudden movement doesn’t result in a gap appearing under a guests meal, this is easily remedied by the use of a simple brass clip that spans from one leaf to the next one. As with anything new technology came about even in the furniture making business and in the world of antique dining tables that came from a man named Joseph Fitter of Cheapside, Birmingham, England who in the mid 19th century patented a mechanism for opening and closing a dining table by the means of a worm gear and a crank handle. Tables were fitted with castors so that they would roll open. Very simply insert the crank wind the handle anti clockwise to open the table and clockwise to close it. This action or mechanism was adopted by a very large number of furniture makers especially those making large antique dining tables.

The use of a circular table as a ding table is also popular and so makers from the georgian, regency, william IV and victorian periods developed round dining tables that could expand designs were created for tables to open in the center for leaves to be added, but also tables were designed that had leaves added on the outside thus increasing the diameter of a table. As with other antique furniture pieces the major makers such as Gillows, Holland and sons, Wright and Mansfield, Edwards and Roberts and Linke in France were constantly striving for excellence in what they made and for many centuries their work will be admired.